


Constellations

by MindfulWrath



Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: F/M, Fluff without Plot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-18
Updated: 2016-08-18
Packaged: 2018-08-09 15:54:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,222
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7808035
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MindfulWrath/pseuds/MindfulWrath
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Life on the road isn't always hard.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Constellations

There were some benefits to sleeping outdoors, if you could ignore the bugs. Percy had never liked bugs, thought they had no place anywhere near his person despite their insistence upon being there. The feeling of things crawling on his skin was unwelcome. The idea of living things impinging upon his personal space without his consent was even more so. Then there was the vastly varying temperature, the hard ground, the weather, and the larger wildlife, all of which put a serious damper on things nine times out of ten.

The stars, however, were always welcome.

The fire had burned down to low embers, for the night was warm and the sky was clear, lending enough light for everyone but Percy to see perfectly. He did, however, manage to pick out Vex'ahlia, lying on her back in the grass with her feet crossed. After some deliberation, he went over and cleared his throat, standing with his hands behind his back.

"Mind if I join you?" he inquired.

Vex looked over at him, quirking an eyebrow. Her hands were laced behind her head, her braid pulled over her shoulder.

"Join me for what, exactly?" she asked, a playful lilt to her voice.

"Oh, whatever you happened to be doing," said Percy. "I shouldn't want to set the tone. Nor interrupt, of course. I just thought it looked rather nice, you know, stargazing. If that's what you were doing, which I realize it may not have been."

"Stargazing? Me? Perish the thought, darling, it sounds awfully frivolous."

"I'm so sorry, I haven't the foggiest where that idea came from. Terribly silly of me."

"Oh, go on and lie down, Percy," Vex said, rolling her eyes and smiling. Percy set himself down a respectable distance away and laced his hands behind his head, mimicking her posture.

"It's a nice backdrop, anyway," he remarked.

"What is?"

He gestured to the sky. "All that. For whatever you were doing that wasn't stargazing. I presume it must have been terribly important."

"I was thinking about last Thursday, and how you totally failed to propose to me like you promised."

"I promised nothing," Percy said, perfunctory.

"You _implied."_

 _"You_ presumed."

"There's nothing for it, Percy darling, you shall have to make it up to me."

"I shudder to think what you'll have me do to remedy such a slight. Am I to wait on you hand and foot like a servant boy?"

"No," said Vex, oozing delight. "You'll wait on _Trinket_ hand and foot."

"Or paw and paw, perhaps."

Vex reached out and slapped his arm with her knuckles. "Don't get uppity, darling, Trinket doesn't like it when you're uppity."

"Well, I mustn't upset _Trinket,_ especially if I'm to be his servant boy. Or perhaps his stepfather? I'm still not quite clear on that."

"You think I'm still going to marry you, after you utterly failed to propose to me? You practically left me weeping at the altar."

 _"Weeping?_ Heavens."

"What?"

"I didn't know you _could_ weep."

She hit him again. "Don't be an ass."

"And which altar? I'm certain we haven't got an altar."

She hit him four more times. _"Don't! Be! An! Ass!"_

"I'm sorry, darling, I don't know what else I could possibly be."

There was a lull then, while the stars sparkled above them and the wind whispered over the meadows, bringing the scent of distant snow.

"You know," Percy said at last, shifting slightly, "I've always wondered. Do elves have different constellations to humans? It's not the sort of thing they teach you, at least not if you're human."

She looked over at him, her face scarcely more than a silver-limned silhouette in the starlight.

"What?" she said.

"Constellations," Percy said, gesturing vaguely at the sky. "I thought, you know, since you'd lived on both sides of that coin, you might know. It's only idle curiosity, of course."

There was a pause, and then Vex wriggled along the ground sideways until her shoulder was touching Percy's. She pointed up at the sky.

"See that bright red one?" she asked.

Percy squinted, then took off his glasses and cleaned them on his shirt. He put them back on and tipped his head over to touch hers.

"I think so," he said.

She began to move her finger, describing the shape of a hero cast up amongst the glittering horde—and then creatures and rivers, ancient wars picked out in pointillism on the velvet night, maidens and warriors and princes and gods, stories woven into the fabric of the sky. Percy listened raptly, right up until the last one.

"It looks like a giant W," he said.

Vex elbowed him in the ribs. "Oh, _be_ serious!"

"I am being serious!" he cried. "You can't deny it looks like a giant W."

"I'm sharing my cultural wisdom with you and you're poking fun."

"No no, poking fun at your cultural wisdom looks quite different. This is poking fun at a giant W."

Vex paused, considering. "It _does,_ rather, doesn't it," she said. "I'm never letting you name any constellations."

Percy held up a hand and pointed. "See those two stars, there? The bright ones? Yes, I call that one _The Great Line._ Because it's a line."

She laughed, and the sound was silver in his ears. Once again, quiet descended between them.

"Percy?" Vex said softly.

"Yes?"

"Do you think the stars are lonely?"

He thought about this, looking up at the vast sparkling sky above, the uncountable masses of diamonds and rubies and sapphires scattered by a giant's hand, unreachable.

"I shouldn't think so," he said, and his voice was gentle. "No, I shouldn't think a star is ever lonely."

She didn't respond. Her shoulder was warm against his, her breath tickling his cheek.

"Vex'ahlia?" he said at last.

"Yes, darling?"

"I would just like you to know that I'm about to do something very stupid."

"How is that at all different from normal, darling?"

He managed to smile, although his heart was trying to break down the bars of his ribs and escape him.

"I suppose it isn't," he said.

He rolled onto his side and kissed her, just briefly, just once.

He lay back down and he could feel the world spinning underneath him. His face was burning, and fear had taken up residence in his stomach like a swarm of insects.

"Well?" Vex said.

"Well—well what?" Percy managed.

"Well, what was the stupid thing you were going to do?" she said.

"I—beg your pardon?" he said. All the wit had fallen out of his head and was scurrying away through the grass like a pack of naughty children.

Vex's hand touched his, and then she laced their fingers together. His heart was doing all sorts of acrobatics that couldn't be good for it.

"You're rather silly, darling, you know that?" Vex said. "But I like you."

"Oh, well," Percy sighed, relief making his voice shake. His head was spinning, and the stars were wheeling overhead. "I—I suppose that's fortunate."

"It is," said Vex. She kissed his cheek, and then cupped his face in her hand and kissed his lips. "Especially since you'll be waiting on my bear for the foreseeable future."

"Damn," he said, grinning. "I did hope I could've got out of that one."

"Never, darling," said Vex, "never."


End file.
